The resiliency of children never failed to amaze her.
“Were you the only survivor?”Gus asked.
Anandra shook his head.“Me and two others.”
“Children too?”
Anandra’s nod made Gus silently curse.What the hell were the Tuann doing?
Over and over again, it had been pressed home how protective the Tuann were of their offspring.Their desire to reconnect with the forty-three was at the center of the group’s current divide.Even as removed from the others as Gus was, she’d heard the whispers.Some were open to giving their former Houses a chance.Others were happy with the status quo and wanted to keep their distance.
And yet there were three, maybe four, Tuann children running around the galaxy.Alone.Unprotected.
Was everything the Tuann said merely lip service?An attempt to pacify the children they’d failed?
“There were Tuann with the humans,” Anandra volunteered.
Gus’s gaze landed on Anandra’s, wanting to ask if he was sure, but she could see that he was.
“Would you recognize them if you saw them again?”Gus asked instead.
“I’ll never forget them.Their faces.Their eyes.”
The hatred in Anandra’s tone might have startled someone else.Someone who thought youth was an impediment.Who had never tasted that particular cocktail of grief and anger that was so familiar to every member of the forty-three.
Anandra may have been young, but he’d already been put through a crucible and come out the other side, if not intact, at least alive.
Gus wasn’t going to tell him everything would be okay.That forgiveness was divine.
Because it wasn’t.It was something someone told others to get them to stop inconveniencing them with their surplus of feelings.
Anger.Hatred.Both were sometimes necessary.They were what drove you to get up in the morning.To keep going when it was so much easier to just lay down and let the sorrow consume you.
Anandra was too young to have learned this lesson, but there was no going back.The loss of his enclave had warped him.It would shape his future.Good or bad.
“Good,” Gus said.
Because she had a feeling that she knew who the Tuann he’d encountered were.
“I’ll show you some photos later,” Gus added.
She had no idea how she’d get images of the forty-three, but she’d figure something out.
Whichever of her siblings had decided to fuck with her, they were going to die.Slowly.Painfully.If Gus didn’t make them experience half of the emotional turmoil Anandra had with the fall of his enclave, she would consider her time spent as the master’s favorite pet wasted.
Five
Amurmurdisguisedasan omen brushed the periphery of Gus’s senses.Easily ignored by someone else.Someone bolder and more assured.
Gus, though, was neither of those things.She was cautious and had learned to pay attention when the universe spoke.
Anandra tensed as he noticed her expression.“What is it?What’s wrong?”
Gus held up a hand, asking for patience as she listened.
Strangers.A lot of them.Their hearts filled with a darkness that was echoed by the wicked thoughts in their heads.
The legs of Gus’s chair screeched as she shoved it back.
